This week from Charleston

April 5, 2013

By the time this paper is published, "cross-over" day will have occurred. Cross-over day is a critically important day in the Legislature. Under the rules of both the House and the Senate, on the 50th day of the session all bills must be passed out of their house of "origin" in order to be considered by the other chamber. This means that if a bill and it has not passed out of one of the chambers by cross-over day, the bill dies. We will vote on over 60 pieces of legislation on cross-over day alone. Given that we have the right to debate each bill, this is an extraordinary amount of legislation to work on in one day. I will update on cross-over day next week, and I look forward to forums back in Jefferson County once the session is over to talk about what happened this session.

Last Monday, my first lead sponsored bill bill, HB 2966, the Internet Privacy Protection Act, passed the House of Delegates 97-0. This is a piece of legislation that I drafted to protect employees and job applicants from having to disclose their personal Facebook, Twitter and other personal internet passwords to their employers. I look forward to lobbying for it in the Senate. Given the fact that it passed 97-0 in the House, I do not think this is particularly controversial. It simply provides common-sense protections for both employees and employers.

Most folks have probably heard that the West Virginia Commuter Rail Access Act has passed out of the Senate. This is critical for ensuring MARC access in Jefferson and Berkeley counties. The real test will be whether it can make it through the House Finance committee. We have just a week left, but Senator Snyder and I are pushing hard to make it happen. Senator Snyder's leadership on this issue has gotten this bill to where it is now. Please thank him when you get the chance.